Modern media systems (e.g., smart TVs) provide a menu that may include menu icons that allow the user to launch an application by interacting with (e.g., by clicking on a) respective menu icons. Menu icons can sometimes provide additional information to the user, e.g., a menu icon can be changed to indicate that some kind of a sale or a promotion is going on. However, such menu icons fail to inform the user about the account status of the application associated with the respective menu icon. That is, the user has no way of knowing their account status (e.g., whether the user has a premium subscription or a free subscription) before actually launching the application. This deficiency can lead to an undesirable user experience where the user launches an application and cannot get the desired content, or a user may miss out on the desired content because they did not know they had access.
Additionally, menus of the modern media systems are often mismatched with a remote controller device that is being utilized by the user. Currently, users will often use third-party devices or software-based remote controllers with varying number of inputs (e.g., buttons, scroll wheels, touchpads, microphones, etc.). Consequently, menu interfaces provided by the media systems will often have user interface elements that have no corresponding input on the user's remote controller. Alternatively, or additionally, menu interfaces may also fail to utilize the inputs that are present on the remote controller.
Furthermore, modern media systems may have a capability that allows a user to set up a “season pass recording” of a series (e.g., TV series). Generally, the user will have an option to record either all seasons of the series or first-run episodes only. However, such systems generally disregard how far along in the series the user currently is. In particular, such systems lack an ability to record just the season that is most relevant to the user based on the last episode of the series that was actually watched by the user.